Capture the Flag, Mutant Style.

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Scott jumped up to better see what was going on, and Warren circled overhead suddenly. At the appearance of the storm cloud, the students all seemed to pause, knowing the game was on time out. Scott hesitated momentarily, watching Hank pull the two boys apart, hands half clenched and at the ready, and Mark noticed that his right hand kept hovering upwards towards his head.

Hank was there in a split second, grabbing the back of Pietro and John's collars and hauling them up. John's lighter dropped between them, and they both squirmed forwards to get it. Hank lifted them slightly higher, off the ground.

"Enough!" He boomed. "I have assigned one penatly this game for inhibiting another student's powers, I should not have to do it again!" The other students were frozen in guilty shock, casting glances between eachother. John was glaring at Pietro fiercely.

"We'd never have these rules in battle," Pietro countered, speaking so fast Mark almost missed it. At that, Scott walked off the gazebo, pausing at the bottom of the stairs in preparation. The storm cloud was clearing slightly, and Warren was coming to land beside Hank, wings folding behind him.

In a sudden, untraceable blur of movement, the blonde boy in Hank's grasp twisted and writhed out of it, kicking himself over the large blue arm faster than Hank could adjust his grip. Scott's hand flew to his sunglasses, in an imopssibly accurate and instant calculation involving where Pietro had looked shortly before he freed himself and the logical path for him to take. The corner of his sunglasses was pulled down, and a brilliant red streak shot out instantly, obviously not created behind the glasses so much as restrained by them.

A clump of dirt and grass shot straight up under the impact of the red beam, and the silvery blur that had been moving was interrupted as the ground under his feet exploded. Pietro slowed as he fell backwards, but he never hit the ground. As he arched backwards, he stopped at the peak of his movement, frozen in position with a confused look on his face. Scott had replaced the sunglasses the second after the red beam had emitted, and was stalking slowly but angrily towards Pietro. A woman seemed to materialize beside him, walking up from across the grounds where she had approached unnoticed.

The woman was tall, with long russet-red hair that fell long around her shoulders. She held herself with an otherworldly poise, her eyes hardened green, one of her long-fingered hands extended, palm-upwards towards Pietro, fingers rigid. Her fingers bent slightly, her gaze locked on Pietro, and his hand was forced open. A lighter dropped to the ground.

Scott and the red-headed woman fell into stride easily together, each a few feet from where Pietro was suspended a stone's throw from the edge of the forest. They didn't exchange a glance, but were clearly aware of the other's presence, and Scott crossed his arms with a clenched jaw as they both looked up at Pietro.

"What do you think you're doing?" Scott's voice had been commanding before, but now it was bordering on fury. Pietro tried to sneer, but thought better of it. He didn't get a response out before Scott continued.

"Pietro, this is your second warning this week. We all know you're very in control of your powers, but if you continue to break the rules that apply to everyone here, you will be punished accordingly."

"Go back to the Mansion- the Professor will be expecting you." The woman continued, as if flawlessly filling in the rest of the sentence Scott ahd started. "And Logan will be waiting to escort you to his office." She added as she lowered her hand, and Pietro slowly dropped back to the ground. The blonde student looked at them both a little scathingly, then disappeared in another flash towards the Mansion.

Scott looked towards Hank, and nodded. Hank put the other student, John, back on the ground. The lighter Pietro had dropped floated towards him, and he took it thankfully. He was caught somewhere between incredibly frusterated and shameful, so he stayed silent, waiting to see if he'd be punished equally. Hank looked at him with a gentle warning in his eyes, and put a large hand softly on his shoulder.

"Try and avoid fights, John." He said kindly, with only a hint of reprimand, and stepped back to blow his whistle again. The game resumed, and Warren, sending a glance over to the red head, gave her an acknowledging smile, and took off again to resume refereeing from the air.

The controlled anger in the posture of both Scott and the woman faded, and Scott looped an arm around the waist of the commanding red head as they walked towards the gazebo.

"Mark," Scott said as they reached the top of the steps. "This is Jean Grey, another teacher here." The pride and unrestrained love in his voice made it easy to tell she was his wife, and the quick glance that passed between them before Jean extended a hand to Mark practically formed sparks in the air.

"Nice to meet you," she said, her voice deep but distinctly feminine, and she gave him an easy smile that made it clear she could hold her own without anyone's aid.